Case STUDIES

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James Cropper creates high quality, distinctive and advanced paper products to help support industries with products such as their packaging (Lush) or paper bags (Selfridges). They made a multi-million pound investment with their unique CupCycling plant that is capable of recycling 100% of the once tricky paper cup. James Cropper’s recycling plant routinely deals with the equivalent of 10 million paper cups per week from the off cuts of paper cup manufacturers as well as materials from consumers at the end of their use. Impressively generating zero waste, with 90% of the material (paper fibre) being turned into paper products and 10% (plastic) being sent away to be turned into plastic products. James Cropper is working with large retailers and waste management companies to upcycle used cups from in-store collections.

In September 2017, Selfridges agreed a deal with James Cropper to recycle paper cups from their Oxford Street store and head office. These cups are being recycled and remade into Selfridges distinctive yellow paper bags to be used within the stores before entering the usual paper recycling stream. The press release for the project can be found here.

James Cropper 3D Products has also recently teamed up with Lush, helping to create sustainable packaging which fits in with Lush’s ethically sourced ethos. The press release for the project can be found here. Similar to McDonalds and Selfridges, James Cropper uses paper cup fibres that have been recycled at their processing plant to create Colourform. This material is used to create high quality moulded pulp packaging, which is biodegradable and is a more sustainable alternative to plastic. The packaging was released in the UK in September 2017 and will eventually be released worldwide.

James Cropper teamed up with McDonalds in January 2016 to begin a trial of collecting and recycling paper cups from 150 of the 1250 McDonalds stores within the UK. James Cropper have developed a recycling technique which allows the paper and plastic from paper cups to be separated and recycled separately, allowing them to be put back into the supply chain with 0% of the material being sent to landfill. Cups are baled before being sent to James Cropper’s CupCycling plant for processing. The press release for this project can be found here and James Cropper’s dedicated website for their cup recycling process can be found here.